1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming management apparatus, system, method and program. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming management apparatus, its system, a method of use of the same and a program which schedule a plurality of printing processes and realize efficient work production in a printing system in which a computer and a printing device are mutually connected through networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, commercial printing services have created a printed article in accordance with requests from clients (for example, personal users, corporations or the like) In business operations of such commercial printing services, printing data (original) are provided from clients, instructions such as a print format, number of sheets and a delivery time are received, and a printed article is created to be delivered to the clients. Such many printing services have used a large scale apparatus such as an offset plate making printing machine which is well-known to perform the business operations.
Further, recently, in accordance with a high speed and a high image quality of an electrophotographic printing device and an ink-jet printing device, business conditions of the commercial printing referred to as “copy service”, “printing service”, “Print On Demand (POD) center” or the like capable of outputting and delivering at a short time have also emerged.
Printing request to these printing services is performed by mailing an original which is recorded in paper or an electronic medium (FD (floppy disk), MO (magneto-optical disk), CD-ROM (compact disk-read-only memory), etc.) and a printing instruction sheet (order instruction sheet) in which the number of print sheets of an original, a bookbinding method, a delivery time or the like is described, or by directly bringing these in printing companies from users to services who provide the above-described service (receiving). A system is put to practical use which can order or receive an order of printing online through the Internet or an intranet. For example, users access a homepage (web page), fill necessary items such as purchaser information (receiving), print formats and the number of sheets in a form for printing request, and send the form with an original file, so that the printing of the original can be ordered. The printing service side receives the request from users and schedules printing process. Then, in accordance with a created schedule, the printing work and the bookbinding work are executed by a printer connected to a work computer. Thus, a created printed article is delivered to clients to complete the business operations.
In such printing services who perform printing processing requested from users, it is necessary to complete printing with a stable quality, so as to securely make a specified delivery time in time. Further, in a large scale printing center, it is necessary that a plurality of operators process many print requests (order) in parallel using various printing devices and work computers. Hence, it is required to efficiently utilize resources such as people (operator) and apparatuses as much as possible. To efficiently utilize the resources, a printing device scheduler is proposed in which an operator performs an operation on a screen, thereby, setting a printing work schedule in consideration of printing devices possessed in printing sites, priority of printing job, business hours in the printing sites and others to allow schedule management.
Further, a printing device scheduler is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-63004 which has a function of displaying a dialog to allow an operator to confirm the allocation of a printing in a case where, when setting and change of a schedule are performed in the scheduler, the printing job is not completed during business hours and is put outside business hours. However, the above described conventional technique merely achieves the schedule in business hours that operators in the printing sites are in service and does not manage a print order which executes an unmanned automatic operation outside business hours such as nighttime and holidays in which operators are absent.
Furthermore, a printing control apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-63004 can schedule a printing job to be executed outside business hours. However, it does not determine whether the job can execute an automatic unmanned operation or not. Thus, eventually, there is a possibility that operators stay after business hours and carry out the work. Accordingly, the printing schedule of an unmanned automatic operation cannot be achieved. Also, in the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-63004, to prevent a job intrinsically required to be processed during business hours from being allocated to an outside-business-hours operation, a dialog is displayed and outside-business-hours scheduling is performed by obtaining approval of workers. Consequently, for example, when a plurality of printing jobs are scheduled to be performed outside business hours, workers need to determine whether scheduling is carried out or not for each job, one by one, to be performed outside business hours. Hence, there are some possibilities that the efficiency of the workers is reduced.
In addition, the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-63004 does not disclose a counter measure when an error arises in a job scheduled to be executed outside business hours. Thus, when an error arises in printers or the like in a condition that workers are absent outside business hours, the error is left. Thus, the schedule after the next business day is possibly affected significantly.